Another great gift idea from notmartha.org, these are fun to make and open. Some notes after testing: I think I used too much paper, so you may want to roll in half as much paper (you can still double the colors). Also, I think I may have filled it with too much candy. Some people may think this is blasphemy, but if the cracker is too full, then the little firecracker part won't crack properly.

The key to it all is the cracker that goes inside. I ordered mine from Olde English Crackers in Bellingham, WA. I ordered on Saturday and they were on my doorstep Monday morning!

You can conceivably get your own tube by using the cardboard roll from paper towels or the cardboard roll from toilet paper. I didn't have 40 of those on hand, so I went ahead and ordered these tubes from the same place as the crackers. They are actually wider than TP rolls, and much sturdier (less chance of getting crushed in transit).

I have seen crackers in catalogs and in stores made with nice wrapping paper for the holidays. I tend to avoid red and green together, it gives me a headache. I got this great assortment of 100 sheets (20 colors) of tissue paper from Michael's which included shiny gold and silver.

Traditional crackers contain a joke, a paper crown, and a prize. My crackers contained a lot of candy...

and toys...

and homemade confetti...

and for the adults, some liquor-filled chocolate bottles.

The sheets were twice as big as I needed, so I folded them in half, with one side an inch shorter than the other and cut them on the fold.

I would set a smaller sheet of one color on the table, then lay a wider sheet of another color on top of that. The roll went in the middle and the cracker went inside the roll (centered). I taped the edge of the two sheets to the tube and began rolling the tissue paper around it.

At the end of rolling, I folded the outside of the paper for a clean edge like so and taped the paper onto the roll.

I scrunched one end of the tube and tied it off with some twine.

Here's what it looks like empty. Now we need to fill it.

An example of how much one cracker could hold.

Once the crackers are filled (I tried not to fill beyond the tube), I squashed the other end shut and tied it off with more twine.

A stack of crackers waiting to be filled to give out at my office.

And a bunch of crackers for my nephew's Christmas package - one for each day from Dec. 24 to Jan 1.